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This week I looked into how I can utilize data, interactive databases and data visualizations to make my digital storytelling blog better. In terms of using data, I struggled to find any numerical data that would describe digital storytelling or any specific numbers that note the significance of storytelling beyond a few research articles. So instead, I am going to experiment with the idea of how storytellers are using data in digital stories. I read a few interesting blog posts about how storytellers are not just including data in their stories, but exploring how the data about a topic can become the story. In addition, I am going to search out specific digital stories that use data as a large component of the story in order to see if my audience finds this type of story more interesting or engaging.

In terms of interactive databases, the field of digital storytelling actually has a lot to offer that I could utilize to reach more of my audience. I’ve already actually shared a few of these on my digital storytelling blog, such as the holocaust museum survivor database. A few resources I will use are Mashable, Econsultancy, and a Huffington Post media blog. Showcasing more of these interactive databases will help me enhance my topic blog because they are incredibly visual and can help attract more eyes to my blog. These more media-driven databases will enhance my blog more than visually. These types of databases are becoming more popular, which can assist me in gaining a bigger audience.

I did a lot of reading this week about data visualizations and digital storytelling. Most of the articles I read said to focus on context. This video gave great advice for how I could use data visualizations on my topic blog.

Then I explored a project conducted by University of Colorado journalism students on digital storytelling. This project highlighted interactive infographics that are told in the form of a story. While showing these data visualizations may help enhance my blog, the idea of context is important to include as well. Thus, I’ll be using the interactive stories, as part of a post. The other part of a post will be a video digital story concerning the topic of the interactive web story. For example, for a interactive web story about Pakistan drone attacks and kills, I will supplement the post with a video digital about the same topic that is more personal in nature. This way I can enhance my blog though data visuals, while remaining true to the original concept of my blog.

“The Curation Economy and the 3C’s of Information Commerce” is an interesting article about how social media creation and curation has changed in the last few years. The article noted that in 2010 almost 70% of people on social media merely consumed and did not create. This means they didn’t post and they didn’t comment. Now millions of social media users post blogs, use photo-sharing sites and are active on social platforms. In today’s age, there are 3 types of social media users: creators, curators and consumers. Read the article to find out more.

In “Curation, and Journalists as Curators” Mindy McAdams lists ways journalists are curators. Journalists can provide the world with the best representatives or links to resources. Journalists should also not be afraid to cull and make sure to only include the best links. Journalists should also provide context, pay attention to the arrangement of the piece and look at the organization as a whole. Finally, the journalist serves as the curator of the piece because they are the expert. Updating you work is also important.

Based on class readings, experience with social media and interest in digital storytelling, I have a good understanding of the social media demographics and motivations of my audience. The demographics of a digital storytelling blog are interesting and have a slight spilt. There are two groups that really share an interest in digital storytelling — high school and college students and academics. There is also a third emerging audience for digital storytelling and that is PR and marketing professionals. I know less about this audience, as it is less popular. The list below explains these groups more specifically and notes their motivations.

High School and College Students:

Demographics:Between the ages of 15 – 28. Predominantly white, African American or Hispanic. Most have, will have, or are pursuing a college degree. According to Pew, there are equal numbers of this age group in urban, rural and suburban. From my own research and Pew data, there may be a slight difference in numbers for the rural students, which could be due to a digital divide issue.

Motivations: High school and college students are only lightly motivated to have an active interest in digital storytelling. These users are more passive because digital storytelling — whether they realize it or not — is a part of their daily life. These users are constantly online and bombarded with media images and videos. According to Pew, 97% of 18-29 year olds are online and about 90% use social media. Social media is a popular place for digital stories to appear, especially on YouTube. This part of my audience is more difficult to motivate to follow a blog, so a better strategy for this group is to seek students who are already familiars with the concept of digital storytelling, possibly through a class or workshop.

Academics:

Demographics:Age is difficult to pinpoint, but it is likely to be younger academics. These academics are from all over the country, although here again there are more likely less rural academics who are invested in this topic. For example, urban and suburban schools are already much more active in digital storytelling over rural schools. For example, the University of Southern California has a digital storytelling academy with backing and funding from different departments.

Motivations:Academics are obviously motivated to pursue digital storytelling because the topic originally emerged as an academic field. Numerous colleges have courses or events related to digital storytelling. In addition, it is becoming more important for professors to understand and to be able to use media, especially in fields related to the arts. Again, because digital storytelling is so immersed in society, academics have become motivated to understand digital storytelling in order to be able to teach the idea.

Mainly my social media strategy this semester has centered on my blogs and Twitter, but this week I am going to outline my strategy for Facebook. Currently I use Facebook daily, both personally and professionally. Personally, I rarely post status updates unless I have something of actual interest that can be posted. I’m not the type to post a picture of my meal or to post selfies. I more consistently use it to get updates from other people or organizations/companies. Professionally, I am the administrator of a public library Facebook page. I post daily, if not more than once a day. The library has over 1,000 followers and with our multitude of programs and events, there is always something that needs to be sent out to the audience.

Since I’m more focused on Twitter and my blogs since I think they can do more for my personal brand and for my interest in digital storytelling, my strategy for Facebook is going to be fairly simple. First, I am going to seek out groups/pages that relate to digital storytelling. Specifically I am going to look for groups that I couldn’t locate on Twitter. In addition, I will be posting status updates more frequently and in relation to posts on my digital storytelling blog. This is important because when I release my survey for my thesis I am using social media as a way to get the word out. Posting more frequently now will help me gain more survey participants down the line.

My personal brand online has made strides just by keeping two blogs this semester. By keeping two blogs, I have made my online presence more noticeable and it has given me more to post on social media. To further establish my personal brand, I have made attempts to post frequently to my blogs and to social media and to use different networks to increase my presence. The strategy and metrics I outlined for my blog and Twitter are designed to make my personal brand more effective.

In terms of my engagement strategy, I am working on using different types of media in my blog posts to see which types solicit more or better responses. I am going to use this strategy with my Twitter posts as well and track my interactions. I am also testing to see whether a direct ask for followers on Twitter to do something versus an indirect ask for action solicits a better response, as noted by one of the readings. As noted, a direct ask for users to follow my blog may work better. This is one way I solicited specific action from my followers this week is by pointedly asking them to follow my digital storytelling blog.

My engagement strategy also includes becoming much more active on Twitter and on my blog. Increased activity should allow me to increase my number of followers and make my online presence stronger. As shown, the people with the best or most noticeable personal brands are consistently posting and keeping up with their topics and followers.

I established my LinkedIn profile in 2010. I was still an undergraduate student so my profile was fairly basic. Now a few years later, my profile is at the All Star level on the site. I’m a little rigid about who I allow to connect with me. I have 73 connections and all of them are people I actually know, or at least have spoken to and could benefit from a professional connection. I show up fairly regularly in search results and my profile is viewed consistently.

To enhance my profile for this week’s assignment, I made any necessary updates to my profile and then focused on making beneficial changes to my network section. I requested connections with a few new people in my community. This was an important update, as I recently joined Rotary and have made new connections there. I also updated my interests area. Professionally, I joined groups such as the American Library Association, grant writing groups and a marketing think tank for public libraries. I had to receive approval for many of these groups. I even had to take a survey to be eligible for one. In relation to digital storytelling, I joined groups such as Friends of the Center for Digital Storytelling. Lastly, I updated my Pulse (news and information) with new channels and influencers, such as a female nonprofit director channel.

This week there were quite a few readings so I will more quickly summarize them than I normally do, but first here’s the trailer from “The Social Network,” a movie about Facebook’s start.

The first thing I read was “Viewing American Class Divisions through Facebook and MySpace” by Danah Boyd. In her article, Boyd notes how social media networks could possibly cause shifts to class divisions, especially among teenagers. She points out that Facebook is for those teens that come from educated families and emphasize going to college. The teens using MySpace on the other hand are those who are expected to enter the workforce or join the army after graduating high school or the “alternative” kids. Now this article was written in 2007 so I’m sure much of what she said has changed, but the idea of social networking influencing class is an interesting topic and why the article is worth reading. If you like this article, I also read Boyd’s post “MySpace and Facebook: How Racist Language Frames Social Media (and Why You Should Care).”

“How Black People Use Twitter” by Farhad Manjoo was an interesting read, as he notes that hashtags used by black people seem to be more prevalent on the networking site. From this, he also noted that black people tend to use Twitter differently than other races. For example, they follow each other more easily, join in conversations more, form tighter clusters and retweet one another more. In addition, there tend to be a higher population of black people on the social networking site. To learn why black people use Twitter differently, make sure to read the article.

The article “Twitter Offers News Orgs Opportunity to Reach Diverse, Underserved Communities” addresses the same idea of how minorities are using the service. The article talked about some of the interesting demographics related to minorities on Twitter and how news organizations could use this information to reach those demographics. Twitter is great for news and information and many groups on Twitter use the service for that type of information. For younger members of the service, many of them are using Twitter as a social tool for informal communication between peers.

The most interesting article I read was “Facebook, Private Traits and Attributes: Predictions from Digital Records of Human Behavior.” The article discussed the ever popular topic of online privacy in relation to social media. More and more people are using privacy settings online to reduce available information about themselves, yet those that use social media are less diligent about privacy and may have a false sense of control. The article discussed a study where they used Likes on Facebook to determine certain demographics about the person. Here are a few findings:

88% of the time for men and 75% of the time for women, researchers were able to predict a user’s sexual orientation

95% of the time, researchers were able to predict a user’s ethnic origin

93% of the time, researchers were able to predict a user’s gender

Lastly, I read two academic article. The first was “From Dabblers to Omnivores: A Typology of Social Network Site Usage.” The second was related to uses and gratifications theory. “Attachment Needs and Social Networking Sites” compared real life friendships to those formed through a social networking site. Heavy use of a social network leads to the need to satisfy a sense of belonging. The researchers found that the tested subjects used social networking as a way to fill the need of belonging and that social media allows a alternative way for the subjects to meet an attachment need.